The Farr Side: Underwood’s latest is solid, falls short of previous work

David T. Farr More Content Now

Thursday

Oct 4, 2018 at 8:49 AMOct 4, 2018 at 8:49 AM

Some people are ugly criers. Carrie Underwood is not one of them. Her latest album, “Cry Pretty,” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 200.

Hopefully, this news bring happy tears for the country superstar. It marks her fourth time to top the album sales chart.

“Cry Pretty” moved 266,000 album equivalents, with 251,000 CD sales. That’s not bad compared to artists who may have debuted on top but sold significantly fewer albums. Remember, though, we are living in the digital age and most millennials and younger music-buyers are buying downloadable singles.

Her debut album, “Some Hearts,” after winning season 4 of “American Idol,” peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 200 and her most recent prior to this, “Storyteller” (2015), also reached No. 2.

“Greatest Hits: Decade #1” peaked at No. 4, which is impressive for a hits collection. I’m partial to that one because it contains my favorite recording of hers,“How Great Thou Art” featuring Vince Gill.

Underwood was bestowed with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame this summer. But she was highly criticized for her “Sunday Night Football” song, “Game On,” which replaces her 2013 NFL Jam, “Oh, Sunday Night.”

With 31 top 10 singles, including 15 singles topping Billboard country airplay chart and 14 topping the hot country singles chart, is her new album up to par with her previous work? She’s under a lot of pressure to deliver consistently good albums, because we know she can. But whereas Underwood was the new girl and garnering a lot of attention of her own, she’s not the new girl now. There are several coming up through the ranks like she once did, making her have to recompete. Young female artists like Maren Morris, Bebe Rexa and Kelsea Bellarini want to take her place.

So is “Cry Pretty” any good? I’m always going to like her, but the singles are not measuring up with her previous output.